A PROGRESSIVE EXPERIMENT: THE EVOLUTION OF WISCONSIN'S COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LEGISLATION FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
GREGORY M. SALTZMAN
DOI: 10.2190/5KDK-N711-AALX-F7LC
Abstract
The greatest changes in labor relations law in the past twenty-five years have occurred in the public sector, but the reasons why public sector labor laws changed are still poorly understood. This article presents a detailed case study of Wisconsin, which enacted a series of local government bargaining laws that paved the way for more pro-union laws in other states. Wisconsin's early and relatively pro-union laws are attributed to long-standing strength of both public and private sector unions, the resurgence of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and the response of union leaders and legislators to a bitter teachers' strike.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.